B2B Marketing Trends: Where to Invest Your

Resources

May 2016Tom Pick

Twitter: @TomPick

The Question

What will successful B2B marketers do more of or differently in 2016?

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The Respondents

24 top marketing

influencers responded:

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The Answers

• Improve at content marketing

• Demonstrate business results

• Get advocacy right

• Make better use of technology

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Trend #1: Take Content Marketing to the Next Level

Content Marketing Stats (1)• 75% of B2B buyer want content to research

business ideas BUT 93% of brands focus content on “marketing”1

• Brand followers want images, videos, customer reviews most, white papers and eBooks least2 BUT 59% of marketers say white papers and eBooks tops for lead gen3

1) MarketingCharts2) SocialTimes3) MediaPost @TomPick

Content Marketing Stats (2)• Brands ~40% of marketing budgets on

content YET just 23% of CMOs say producing right content for right audience/time/format1

• 93% of marketers will spend same or more this year BUT <1/3 believe purpose is highly understood internally2

1) Business2Community2) MarketingSherpa

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Content Marketing Stats (3)• 85% of marketers say primary

purpose of content is building brand awareness and company image YET

• 70% measure effectiveness on lead gen. Result is more of sales-centric content business leaders dislike.1

1) MarketingSherpa

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Content Marketing Quotes (1)

“Data-driven B2B marketers will notice that in order to reap the fruits of (content) they need to use it to connect on more emotional levels, put customer experience first and find the sweet spot between what they stand for and what individual customers seek and appreciate.”

- J-P De Clerck

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“B2B marketers have finally realized merely throwing content into the ether is both expensive and wasteful. They’re adopting buyer personas, content targeting and matching content to stages of the buying cycle. Content marketing will continue huge growth in B2B but we’re going to get a lot smarter about how we invest resources. Marketers are beginning to realize buyers are people, not demographic segments, and they are appealing more to the motivations that influence human behavior.”

- Paul Gillin

Content Marketing Quotes (2)

Content Marketing Guidance• Target buyers more precisely:

– By persona– By industry– By issue– By stage in the buying cycle

• Appeal to emotions

• Repurpose in different formats#SMBMSP90 @TomPick

Social Media Takeaway

• Think about “shareworthiness” of content: who, where, and why?

• Example: 8 Things We DON’T Hate About IT

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Trend #2: Demonstrate Measurable Business Results

Marketing Value Stats (1)• 58% of CMOs feel increasing pressure to

prove the value of marketing—none feel less pressure1

• Just 29% of CMOS can quantitatively prove long-term impact of marketing; 23% can’t prove any impact at all2

1) MediaPost2) TheCMO Survey

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Marketing Value Stats (2)• Only 30% of B2B marketers say they are effective

at content marketing (55% for those who are “clear on what success or effectiveness looks like”)1

• 1/3 of marketers don’t know which digital marketing tactic has biggest impact on revenue2

• 60% of marketers say “measuring ROI” is one of three top social media marketing challenges3

1) Forbes2) MarketingProfs3) Simply Measured

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The Marketing ROI Debate• Kieran Flanagan on the

HubSpot blog: “There is no single metric you can show your boss that will categorically give the ROI of the content you produce.”

• Rob Petersen: not only is it possible to measure the ROI of content marketing—21% of content marketers ‘say they are successful at tracking ROI’—but “here are a dozen real-world examples.”

Source: Six Expert Guides to Measuring Content Marketing Results, Webbiuity: http://webbiquity.com/web-analytics/six-expert-guides-to-measuring-content-marketing-results/

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Marketing Value Quotes (1)

Ask ‘Why are we doing this?” More Often

“If your CEO isn’t already asking you that question, (s)he is always thinking it, whenever it involves marketing expense. Marketers with the longest job tenure design, execute and internally promote programs that have a direct (or very strong indirect” correlation with tangible business outcomes their CEO can understand, including revenue generation, client acquisition and retention, and market share.”

- Gordon G. Andrew

Marketing Value Quotes (2)“I predict a massive correction in B2B advertising and event budgets that will drive an increase in content marketing. This will require us to get pretty darn good at showing content marketing ROI. We’ll also see more personalization (and) visual content.”

- Michael Brenner

“Marketing has to continue to become more accountable for business results…B2B marketers will focus more on the right metrics that support business goals in 2016. It’s not just vanity metrics that have slowed this down, but the availability of too much data (is) the latest distraction.”

- Jeffrey L. Cohen

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• Data is abundant; interpretation is scarce

• Plan your metrics in advance: prospect vs. customer

• Measure ROI at the appropriate level of effort

• Roll-up vanity (op) metrics to meaningful (non-ROI) and actionable measures

Marketing Value Guidance

Social Media Takeaway• You can’t buy engagement• Measure change over time, competitive

benchmarking:– SimilarWeb– Rival IQ– TrackMaven– TalkWalker

• Examples: retail news, content upgrades

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Trend #3: Create and Embrace Advocates

Social Advocacy Stats (1)• Rethink “influencer” marketing? 91% of brand

social mentions are from people w/ <500 followers.

• And 94% of those mentions are positive.1

• And according to Dunbar’s number, no one really influences more than 150 people anyway.2

1) Buffer2) Google it.

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Social Advocacy Stats (2)• Your best influencers may be your own

employees (or co-workers). 50% of employees share about their companies on social media—without any prompting.

• BUT guidance/training is needed. Just 41% of workers say they know what their company stands for and what differentiates it from competitors.1

1) iMedia Connection

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Social Advocacy Quotes“Leading B2B brands are investing resources to create a workforce of engaged brand ambassadors. The result is a win-win. The company benefits from more authentic communication, and employees build personal brands.”

- Cheryl Burgess

“The average click-through rate is 0.1%, banners don’t work anymore, and people are much more likely to trust peer to peer recommendations than advertising. Identify, listen, and engage with influencers…build valuable and long-lasting relationships with them and they will help you spread and amplify your message.”

- Joe Fields

Influencer Outreach• Not long ago: new, flailing (the lazy PR

pitch)• Now: mature, best practices, etiquette,

tools– Buzzstream– Onalytica– Inkybee– Muck Rack– Pitchbox

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• Identify your key influencers across groups:– Employees– Bloggers– Journalists– Business partners– Customers

• Tell them what you want• Answer WIIFM

Social Advocacy Guidance

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Social Media Takeaway

Company blog post –Your blog, your voice

Guest post –Influencer blog, your voice

Hosted blog post –Your blog, influencer voice

Influencer blog post –influencer blog, influencer voice

The Soon-to-be-Famous Inverted Pyramid of Social Media Influence

Social Advocacy Examples• Teradata – personalized marketing• IBM bloggers• Ghost writing

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Trend #4: Make Better Use of Technology

Marketing Tech Stats (1)• Just 34% of B2B firms touch leads monthly.1

• YET 63% of companies outgrowing their competitors use marketing automation.

• And 68% of best-in-class companies use lead scoring — compared to 28% of laggard firms.2

1) B2B Marketing Insider2) Iconsive

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The Universe of Marketing Tools

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Marketing Tech Stats (2)• 65% of B2B marketers plan to spend more on

programmatic advertising this year.

• 78% will spend up to 50% of their budgets on programmatic.

• YET 44% of B2B marketers don’t understand how programmatic works, and 47% cite “Lack of understanding” as top challenge.1

1) MediaPost

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Marketing Tech Quote

Invest in Training to Use Marketing Technology More Effectively

“Organizations spend millions of dollars annually (on marketing tech). Yet we invest little, if any, on training and marketing enablement for our marketing departments. The growing technology stack and the fact most marketers are self-taught means we need to ensure effectiveness of our teams…Only 7.5% (of respondents to a recent study) reported the skill set of marketing personnel was highly effective. Clearly, we need to do better.”

- Erika Goldwater

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• Get marketing processes right first

• Take a strategic approach to tools (what does what?)

• Train people to use your tools — well: tech, policy/brand, data quality

• Monitor the landscape — things change!

Marketing Tech Guidance

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Questions?

Contact info:

tom@tompick.com

(763) 432-0108

Webbiquity.com

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